1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to automated storage facilities.
2. Background Art
The portfolio of automated storage facilities covers a large range of storage applications, configurations, options, capacity, etc. However, for customers, it is not easy to modify these elements such as increase their storage capacity or modify the configuration because this process involves either exchanging the current facility, now too small, for a larger model, or involves the addition of companion models be installed in order to extend the facility or change it's configuration.
In this same way, for customers looking to decrease their storage capacity or move the storage facility to a smaller location, the current process leads such customers to either retain the oversized facility or exchange the storage facility for a smaller model.
For customers trying to protect their investments and trying to avoid manipulating stored units or reconfigure their storage facility processes, these aspects of automated storage facilities are not very attractive.
On the other hand, though these problems are addressed and a customer has a facility with ability to change configuration or have a variable capacity to store units, There is still a significant operations problem. For example, when a maintenance or repair operation is performed, it is generally the case that the operators must first stop the entire facility and stop all processes. This leads to a loss of productivity. Further, if when resuming operations after this stop it is required to further wait for an inventory or an audit of the facility's contents to complete, the period of lost productivity can be significantly increased.
Another concern with automated storage facilities, from a supplier standpoint, is that having a large portfolio of automated storage models, developed, manufactured, and maintained is costly unless there are a limited number of parts common to all of the models.
Background information may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,341,944, 5,607,275, 5,761,032, and 6,149,019.